I teach English and I write, mostly about horse racing, for the Blood-Horse, New York Breeder, the Saratogian, Hello Race Fans!, Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred, The Racing Biz, and the Brooklyn Heights Blog. My work has also appeared in the Daily Racing Form, Thoroughbred Times, the New York Daily News, and BelmontStakes.com. A former and erstwhile resident of Saratoga Springs, New York, I’ve lived in Brooklyn for more than a decade, and when I’m not teaching or writing, I’m watching the Rangers at the Garden, playing Scrabble, or rescuing cats.

Frankel: The Most Valuable Racehorse Ever?

Comparing athletes of any kind from different time periods is generally a dodgy business, and horses are no different from humans. In fact, comparing great race horses now to great race horses in the past might be the among the most futile of arguments, given the changes in the breeding of horses and the sport of racing itself over the last 100 years.

Such academic considerations, however, are not stopping people from calling Frankel the greatest racehorse of all time.

Frankel is a four-year-old, British-bred horse who last week at Royal Ascot in England extended his unbeaten record to 11. Nine of his wins have come in stakes races, seven of them in Group 1 races, the sport’s highest level.

His most recent victory, in the Queen Anne Stakes, was a tour de force; he won by 11 lengths, crushing his competition, leading Timeform, the respected British handicapping organization, to assign him an unprecedented rating of 147 and to describe Frankel’s performance as “equine magnificence.”

Frankel is owned by Juddmonte Farms, which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Prince Khalid Abdullah; the horse is named for the late Bobby Frankel, who trained horses for Juddmonte until his death from leukemia in 2009. Frankel the human won five Eclipse Awards for leading trainer, including four consecutively from 2000-2003.

Frankel the colt was born in February of 2008, and in late 2009, Juddmonte decided to memorialize its late trainer by naming some of its most promising yearlings after him. Out of foal crop of nearly 200 horses, this colt, the son of European champion Galileo, was given the name Frankel.

“We could be looking at the best horse that ever lived,” said Nick Godfrey, international editor of Britain’s Racing Post, last week. “I’ve never see a horse do what he did.”

“Frankel has what racing people, especially Europeans, call brilliance,” said Marcus Hersh, a correspondent for the U.S.’s Daily Racing Form. “He can keep up with any pace, regardless of how fast, but he’s willing to wait for his jockey’s cue, and when he unleashes his burst, he displays breathtaking acceleration, which he’s able to sustain for close to three-eighths of a mile, a very long run for a horse with his kind of speed.”

While Frankel’s jaw-dropping performance led one BBC commentator to declare him “the most valuable racehorse ever,” that assessment may be more contentious than calling him the greatest.

“Dollar value and racing ability are two different things,” cautioned John Sparkman, bloodstock editor of Lexington, Kentucky-based Thoroughbred Times and a private bloodstock consultant. “Racing ability is absolute but value is dependent on the current market.

“Frankel could be legitimately rated the best racehorse in history–a matter still very much up for debate–and still not be the most valuable horse because of variations in market conditions over time.”

Sparkman said that highest-priced stallion syndication was for Fusaichi Pegasus at a reported $60 million in 2000 and noted that horses in general are not worth as much now as they were then. He also pointed out that the record stud fee—how much it costs to breed a mare to a stallion–was $500,000 for Northern Dancer in the mid-1980’s.

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Bellwether, Storm Cat’s stud fee did indeed equal Northern Dancer’s, and perhaps I should have pointed that out after the quote…and there’s certainly room for disagreement on who the best horse in history is. I wasn’t trying to settle the debate here, just get some opinions about the horse’s value following his win last week. Thanks for the comment.

I think your reaction to the above copy might be better addressed to the Royal Ascot race commentator and numerous Racing publications that ventured such quotations that piqued your interest.

Yes, John Henry was a bi-coastal phenomenon who could have out-distanced I-95′s storied commercial truck drivers between New York City and Miami Beach, I agree; and Storm Cat was certainly an expensive breeding right for the ’80s and ’90s, while such high figures were in vogue. However, I think those commentators and writers who reached for such high praise of Frankel’s career achievements were probably reacting more to the horse’s just completed Queen Ann Stakes victory — quite exciting though, I think — than realistically placing him properly on the equine periodic chart.

There was a time that Seattle Slew had a value of 100 million US based on his share price. I started with Horacio Luro, who trained Northern Dancer and had a lifetime breeding, I the breedings were going for 1 million no guarantee. Of course the only bred 40 mares in those days.

Intending no disrespect towards Prince Khalid or the Juddmonte organization, but given the recent track record with studs in the past decade (Chester House, Zafonic, Aptitude, Cacique) I would be almost afraid to try and stand Frankel! That being said, I wish only the best for the horse and his connections.

I used to joke with Storm Cats trainer (Jonathan Sheppard) about how he earned a million dollars each and every year w/o lifting a finger…W.T. Young gave Sheppard a free lifetime breeding right to Storm Cat, and most years unless he or his soup buddy Strawbridge used it, (at a discount) he would sell it…..and most years that is exactly what happened. And before anyone thinks it was dollars and cents greed that had him sell, hold up…he never wanted to cheapen the stud with a mare that was not top notch. He is a trainer first and foremost, so his broodmare band was not always stellar enough for that mating. A horse can be insanely valuable in the breeding shed upon retirement. But…as an earlier poster mentioned, there are no guarantees…I DO think Zafonic..also Cigar, and Spectacular Bid…historical monsters on the track, but flops as Daddys..It could happen to Frankel with no problem..

As a huge Jonathan Sheppard fan, I’d never think that he did something out of greed — one of my favorite parts of Saratoga is getting to see him and his horses pretty much every day. And as you note, performance on the track doesn’t always correlate to performance in the shed. Will be interesting to see what happens.